History SoYouWantTo / BeACausticCritic

Be very careful about what you review. No, not because you might anger the next TommyWiseau, but because it's very easy to tread on ground someone's already covered. You need to find material nobody has reviewed yet or pick relatively old ground apart in a way nobody else has yet. Some reviewers even have to point out beforehand that they're treading well-beaten ground when they cover some material, and yet they still have at least some original opinions to share. In that same vein, make sure you can make a solid review out of what you're looking at. Nothing is worse than trying to criticize something so bad and/or tedious that you have to stretch for every joke.

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Be very careful about what you review. No, not because you might anger the next TommyWiseau, Creator/TommyWiseau, but because it's very easy to tread on ground someone's already covered. You need to find material nobody has reviewed yet or pick relatively old ground apart in a way nobody else has yet. Some reviewers even have to point out beforehand that they're treading well-beaten ground when they cover some material, and yet they still have at least some original opinions to share. In that same vein, make sure you can make a solid review out of what you're looking at. Nothing is worse than trying to criticize something so bad and/or tedious that you have to stretch for every joke.

The most popular targets of Caustic Critics are movies, video games and television shows. However, there's a niche for everything if you can build convincing reviews and acts around them. Linkara proved review shows about comic books could work beautifully. [[Creator/StuartAshen Dr. Ashen]] reviews strange gadgets and random crap found at Poundland and makes it entertaining. If we're going to include non-video reviews, {{Seanbaby}} writes funny articles making fun of fighting and mixed martial arts among a whole litany of other topics. There's the soul of being a Caustic Critic: the entertainment value of your reviews is what you live and die by.

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The most popular targets of Caustic Critics are movies, video games and television shows. However, there's a niche for everything if you can build convincing reviews and acts around them. Linkara proved review shows about comic books could work beautifully. [[Creator/StuartAshen Dr. Ashen]] reviews strange gadgets and random crap found at Poundland and makes it entertaining. If we're going to include non-video reviews, {{Seanbaby}} {{Creator/Seanbaby}} writes funny articles making fun of fighting and mixed martial arts among a whole litany of other topics. There's the soul of being a Caustic Critic: the entertainment value of your reviews is what you live and die by.

Don't be afraid to theme several reviews about the same sort of thing every once in a while. Lots of critics do it-Linkara has PSA Hell, [[Creator/FrankMiller Miller Time]] and Secret Origins Month, the Nostalgia Critic had Nostalgiaween, DrAshens has Poundland specials (and a subset of those in [[MasochistsMeal Poundland food specials]]), you name it.

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Don't be afraid to theme several reviews about the same sort of thing every once in a while. Lots of critics do it-Linkara has PSA Hell, [[Creator/FrankMiller Miller Time]] and Secret Origins Month, the Nostalgia Critic had Nostalgiaween, DrAshens WebVideo/StuartAshen has Poundland specials (and a subset of those in [[MasochistsMeal Poundland food specials]]), you name it.

Aside from the obvious of "whatever it is you're reviewing" if you can get your hands on it (people who review movies, television shows and the like make do with the title screen or opening credits), go wild with whatever props you feel should carry the performance along. PlanningWithProps is funny when you're demonstrating something to the audience, so is incorporating NoodleImplements or CowTools. [[TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]] made one or two funny performances out of acting things out with random dolls strewn around his home.

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Aside from the obvious of "whatever it is you're reviewing" if you can get your hands on it (people who review movies, television shows and the like make do with the title screen or opening credits), go wild with whatever props you feel should carry the performance along. PlanningWithProps is funny when you're demonstrating something to the audience, so is incorporating NoodleImplements or CowTools. [[TheSpoonyExperiment [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment Spoony]] made one or two funny performances out of acting things out with random dolls strewn around his home.

Don't be afraid to theme several reviews about the same sort of thing every once in a while. Lots of critics do it-Linkara has PSA Hell, [[FrankMiller Miller Time]] and Secret Origins Month, the Nostalgia Critic had Nostalgiaween, DrAshens has Poundland specials (and a subset of those in [[MasochistsMeal Poundland food specials]]), you name it.

to:

Don't be afraid to theme several reviews about the same sort of thing every once in a while. Lots of critics do it-Linkara has PSA Hell, [[FrankMiller [[Creator/FrankMiller Miller Time]] and Secret Origins Month, the Nostalgia Critic had Nostalgiaween, DrAshens has Poundland specials (and a subset of those in [[MasochistsMeal Poundland food specials]]), you name it.

* {{Tatsudoshi}} and the Multipurpose Spam crew on the whole tend to have a lot of great moments as critics with their "Your Choice Reviews" series on their secondary channel. They've reviewed an extremely broad range of things in an effect-free vlog format and you can bet they have something strong, and [[CrossesTheLineTwice more]] [[RefugeInAudacity than]] [[DeadBabyComedy a bit]] [[EqualOpportunityOffender shocking]] to say about each one as well.

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* {{Tatsudoshi}} LetsPlay/{{Tatsudoshi}} and the Multipurpose Spam crew on the whole tend to have a lot of great moments as critics with their "Your Choice Reviews" series on their secondary channel. They've reviewed an extremely broad range of things in an effect-free vlog format and you can bet they have something strong, and [[CrossesTheLineTwice more]] [[RefugeInAudacity than]] [[DeadBabyComedy a bit]] [[EqualOpportunityOffender shocking]] to say about each one as well.

First of all, understand that your role as a Caustic Critic, no matter what kind you see yourself becoming, is first and foremost that of an entertainer. People will line up to watch you take apart things that usually wouldn't be too palatable by themselves and make them bearable by virtue of making jokes at their expense. To put it another way, MysteryScienceTheater3000 makes bad movies entertaining by watching them and making jokes about it while it plays. Think of yourself as doing that with a summarized version of whatever it is you'll have in front of you.

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First of all, understand that your role as a Caustic Critic, no matter what kind you see yourself becoming, is first and foremost that of an entertainer. People will line up to watch you take apart things that usually wouldn't be too palatable by themselves and make them bearable by virtue of making jokes at their expense. To put it another way, MysteryScienceTheater3000 ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' makes bad movies entertaining by watching them and making jokes about it while it plays. Think of yourself as doing that with a summarized version of whatever it is you'll have in front of you.

Also avoid reviewing [[BiasSteamroller media and genres you do not like]]. Contrary to the first sight the most famous caustic critics are people who are fans of that genre and media. Not doing that can easily lead to you attacking the genre and media itself (and what codified it) rather than the work itself and could you end up being seen as an example of the HateDumb of a particular work. The above reason is also why certain caustic critics (such as the Nostalgia Critic) refuse to review genres they hate.

** If you want to play a persona, study TheCinemaSnob, who plays the shtick of being your typical pretentious film critic to the hilt. According to him, most of his Snob reviews aren't his actual opinions, but the Snob's.

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** If you want to play a persona, study TheCinemaSnob, Creator/BradJones, who plays the shtick of ''WebVideo/TheCinemaSnob'' as being your typical pretentious film critic to the hilt. According to him, most of his Snob reviews aren't his actual opinions, but the Snob's.

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